Then I installed what was supposed to be a stable Firefox 4.0 release. (I used to be happy to beta-test browsers, but given the age of my OS and my previous problems therewith, I don’t mess with beta anymore). And approximately 3 minutes into a session, irrespective of whether I was watching video or reading e-mail or just browsing a news site, it would throw the entire machine into a hard freeze. No keyboard. No mouse. No screen activity. Hard-drive light dark. And then the screen would go into power-save mode, indicating it was receiving no input at all from the processor.

No such problem with IE. Firefox was clearly the culprit.

So I’ve uninstalled 4.0, gone back to 3.6.11, and if Mozilla wants me to come out of it again, they’re gonna need to send a posse and a really big gun. I’ve reinstalled Chrome at work and encountered no problems, but I’m gonna wait a little longer before reinstalling it at home.

So, browser makers: You need to keep in mind that your 19-year-old whiz kid’s idea of what constitutes a stable release might not be exactly congruent with my XP SP3 OS’s idea of what constitutes a stable release. And my OS trumps your whiz kid.

Well, Liv, the biggest problem has been a raggedy 6-year-old OS, but a clean reinstall in November solved that problem. The Chrome problems were identical both at home and at work, so I can’t blame that just on my machine. I have not yet installed FF 4.0 at work (and after this experience, I’m in no rush), so I’m not CERTAIN that wasn’t a machine problem, but I do know that I’ve had no more difficulties since rolling back to 3.6.11.